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Local grant intended to halt under age drinking

Bragg Hill Family Life Center gets $10,000 grant to prevent underage drinking in the Fredericksburg area

Date published: 8/30/2009

By KELLY HANNON

A Fredericksburg-area nonprofit will receive $10,000 from the Virginia Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control to prevent underage drinking.

The Bragg Hill Family Life Center and Bragg Hill Community Coalition will use the money for youth-created public service announcements that will air on local radio stations, said Sue Parr, Community Coalition project director. The campaign will target 12- to 18-year-olds in the Fredericksburg area, she said.

"We're looking for ways to engage them, catch their attention," Parr said.

Other grant-funded projects will include a "prevention wall" at Bragg Hill Family Life Center, and education materials on underage drinking that could be distributed at school and community events, Parr said.

Materials will share health information on the risks of underage drinking, but will also promote messages that resonate with teens and pre-teens, Parr said.

For instance, the materials will point out what teens could spend money on instead of drugs or alcohol.

"How could you take that money and invest it in a positive way for positive results?" Parr said, using an iPod as an example.

Virginia's ABC department awarded $61,007 to seven organizations around the state for the program, which is supposed to promote zero tolerance for underage drinking.

The money is provided by the federal Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.

A 2008 National Institute on Drug Abuse study, "Monitoring the Future," found that 16 percent of eighth-graders in the U.S. admitted to drinking an alcoholic beverage in the 30 days before the study.

Underage drinking rates were higher for older students: 29 percent of 10th-graders and 43 percent of 12th-graders had drunk an alcoholic beverage in the previous month.

In the same survey, 92 percent of 12th-graders said it would be "fairly easy" or "very easy" to get alcohol.

No statistics on underage drinking in the Fredericksburg area were included in the grant application. Parr said anecdotal evidence of underage drinking is shared with her organization through school, law enforcement and medical sources.

The grant funding will also defray costs for a youth summit planned for Saturday, Oct. 31, at Germanna Community College, Parr said. The summit will highlight the positive and negative consequences of drug and alcohol use, among other behaviors.

Kelly Hannon: 540/374-5436
Email: khannon@freelancestar.com

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Date published: 8/30/2009